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BRIXTON BUGLE YOUR FREE
No 62 | APRIL 2018
Published monthly in and for Brixton
ISSN 2397-852X
NEW OWNER FOR BRIXTON MARKET
COMMUNITY PAPER
NATIONAL CHAMPION! Vivien is Afewee’s second
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Texan DJ pledges to secure ‘unique character’ and hold conversation with community
Start of a conversation – Taylor McWilliams (right) visits Joe Storey-Scott, owner of 20 Storey in Market Row
Brixton Market has new owner in the shape of Hondo Enterprises which is owned by the London-based Texan, Taylor McWilliams, who is also part of the four-person DJ collective Housekeeping. The market site includes both Brixton Village and Market Row. Hondo says that – together with unspecified “investors” – it has bought both the lease for the site that was owned by The Market Village Company Ltd and the freehold, that was owned by London & Associated Properties. McWilliams is the sole director of Hondo Enterprises, which describes itself as a property investment, development and asset management company specialising in “opportunistic and value-add transactions” in central London. Hondo last filed accounts – for 2016 – in September last year. It recorded itself as a “micro entity” with assets of less than £50,000. McWilliams has been the target of a political campaign by the group Class War over a development in Aldgate near the City of London and the use of “poor doors”. A spokesperson for Hondo said: “Our first priority is to start a conversation with the traders, Lambeth council and the local community about their views on the current operations of the market and how we can help enhance it for both traders and the local community. “We look forward to beginning a conversation with traders, the local community, and Lambeth council
in the coming weeks and months as we develop our plans to protect and enhance the market.” One trader told the Bugle that, until Hondo announced its purchase, traders believed that Tribeca Holdings, a vehicle for Irish-born property dealer Aidan Brooks, was to become the freeholder of the site. They expressed concern that Hondo appears to have no experience of managing a market, unlike Tribeca, which has owned Spitalfields Market in East London since 2013. It was reported earlier this year that the market had been bought by a consortium led by Aidan Brooks. Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct, which is soon to open a “luxury” Flannels store on Pope’s Road, had also been interested in buying the market. Hondo said that, under its stewardship, the market’s “unique character will be secured for the long term”. Its website lists its other properties as car parks, an “urban resort hotel and spa” and the Relay Building in Aldgate, a 22-storey-mixed-use development that has part of a London Underground carriage in the reception area. It is intended to be “a new hub for tech and creative occupiers”. A Lambeth council spokesman said: “Lambeth council intends to fully engage with the new owners. We will work to ensure that Brixton Village and Market Row remain home to our valuable local traders and remain at the heart of our town centre.”
RECORD SHOP DAY…
Where better than Brixton?
7
JUST A MUM?
No way says app developer Sara 10
GOING VIRAL
At the Advocacy Academy
9